Week-ending 15 August 2025
“By classifying RSF – an NGO that defends journalism – as an undesirable organisation, the Kremlin’s message is clear. It’s continuing its crusade to gag all outspoken voices that expose its censorship and propaganda. But this will not silence us. We will continue to investigate and denounce its war against news and information, and to work to ensure that every Russian responsible for crimes against journalists, in Russia and Ukraine, is identified and prosecuted. In a way, being added to this list of some 250 organisations is an honour for RSF. The failure to give a reason suggests that the decision is a recognition of RSF’s entire body of work, from the exfiltration of Russian journalists to the Svoboda satellite broadcasts.‘
– Thibaut Bruttin, RSF director general
Source: ‘RSF listed as “undesirable organisation” in Russia, where Kremlin sees right to information as threat,’ RSF, 14 August 2025
Background from RSF: RSF’s addition to Russia’s list of “undesirable organisations” – foreign entities regarded by the Kremlin as a “threat to Russia” – was announced by the justice ministry today, 14 August, although it said the decision was taken on 23 July. RSF, which nonetheless has no presence in Russian territory, has not been notified at any point. This decision is not without consequences. Anyone cooperating with listed “foreign organisations” or helping to fund them in Russia can be subjected to administrative prosecution and fined. Repeat offences may lead to criminal prosecution punishable by up to five years in prison. Even the slightest reference to such an organisation or sharing its posts is enough to trigger these prosecutions. This is not the first time that the Russian authorities have targeted RSF. The media regulator Roskomnadzor blocked access to its website in 2024. Russia is ranked 171st out of 180 countries and territories in RSF’s 2025 World Press Freedom Index.
“We urge President Trump, as the meeting’s host, to put human rights and matters of justice at its forefront. He has repeatedly expressed his desire to end the war in Ukraine and his regret for people dying; this is President Trump’s real chance to do something for the victims and survivors. Upholding human rights and ensuring accountability for crimes under international law committed in Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian intervention in 2014 is the only way to bring a just and lasting end to the war. President Trump must as well take concrete steps to bring the suspected perpetrators of these violations to justice. Vladimir Putin and several other top Russian officials are fugitives from international justice after their indictment by the International Criminal Court. When it comes to the U.S. government’s own obligations under international law, the Geneva Conventions in particular, it must search for and try or extradite persons accused of responsibility for grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions. There must be no ‘safe haven’ for individuals alleged to have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity. President Trump must also raise the issue of torture and other ill-treatment, enforced disappearance, and unlawful prosecution and trials of Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russia. More steps need to be taken urgently to ensure that all gravely wounded or sick prisoners of war are repatriated or transferred to third countries. Likewise, all Ukrainian civilians detained and sentenced under fabricated criminal charges in Russia or in Russian-occupied territories must be immediately released. So must be all persons in Russia jailed for opposing the war. Finally, Amnesty International continues to call for a peace framework to address the urgent needs of those most affected by the conflict – from providing sustained aid to vulnerable groups, including children and older people, and robust support for refugees and displaced people, to ensuring the safe return of communities through large-scale clearance of landmines and other explosive remnants of war. For his peace efforts to be successful in the long run, President Trump should follow up on this meeting by working with the U.S. Congress and international partners to address these critical needs, including through the provision of adequate funding.”
– Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Director
Source: ‘USA/Russia: In Ukraine talks with Putin, Trump must demand justice, accountability and an end to human rights violations,’ Amnesty International, 15 August 2025
Background from Amnesty International: Amnesty International has documented numerous human rights violations and crimes under international law that have been committed in Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian aggression. These have included direct attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, indiscriminate attacks, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial executions, torture, unlawful deprivation of liberty, forcible transfer and deportation of civilians, and torture and other ill-treatment of civilians and prisoners of war. While a possible ceasefire is being discussed, President Trump must use the opportunity to help secure an immediate end to these egregious violations and also demand the unconditional return of all children abducted from Ukraine during the war.
‘It is an affront to victims and survivors that Putin, who, along with five other Russian officials, is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for serious international crimes in Ukraine, will be welcomed on US territory. But it comes as little surprise. The Trump administration has sanctioned key ICC officials and defunded programs that supported investigations into war crimes committed during the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Perpetrators of grave crimes, including widespread, indiscriminate bombing and shelling of civilians and civilian infrastructure, torture and ill-treatment in occupied areas and Russian prisons, and the torture and executions of POWs, must be held accountable. At minimum, Trump should act to secure the release of Ukrainian civilians facing daily torture in Russian custody.’
– Rachel Denber, Deputy Director, Europe and Central Asia Division
Source: Rachel Denber, ‘Trump-Putin Meeting Sidelines Civilian Protection, Justice. Agenda Omits Detained Ukrainian Civilians, Accountability for War Crimes,’ Human Rights Watch, 12 August 2025
Background from Human Rights Watch [Rachel Denber]: Talks so far have yielded POW exchanges between Ukraine and Russia. However, Russia holds thousands more civilians whom authorities systematically torture, which a United Nations body has called a crime against humanity. President Trump said “territory swapping” is on the Alaska agenda but has not mentioned any violations, including war crimes or other serious crimes under international law Russian forces are committing in the Ukrainian territories they occupy or how civilians will be protected while Russia continues to be the occupying power. Russian occupying authorities are imposing Russian citizenship, forcibly transferring civilians to other areas, coercing residents to serve in the Russian military, imposing the Russian state curriculum in schools, and politically indoctrinating school children in order to deny them the right to know and express their Ukrainian identity.
‘The US administration must now emphasize the need to release and repatriate wartime detainees in its negotiations with Moscow. This is not just an idealistic goal. Because an agreement for both sides to free civilian detainees and exchange POWs is relatively low-hanging fruit in diplomacy with the Kremlin, securing it could help smooth the way for talks over more vexing issues. And in the meantime, a deal could meaningfully reduce the human suffering this war inflicts daily. It is too late to save Roshchyna, who was just 27 years old when she died in Russian detention. But thousands of war captives can still come home.’
– Tanya Lokshina, Associate Director, Europe and Central Asia Division, Human Rights Watch
Source: Tanya Lokshina, ‘The First Step in Negotiations With Russia Freeing Detained Ukrainians Can Smooth the Way for More Difficult Talks,’ Human Rights Watch, 15 August 2025
Background from Human Rights Watch [Tanya Lokshina]: Releasing war captives may be the one thing that all parties can quickly agree on. In June, Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, noted the importance of Russian-Ukrainian negotiations from a “humanitarian perspective” and spoke of the hundreds of captured Russian soldiers who were able to “return home” following a prisoner swap that Kyiv and Moscow agreed to during negotiations in Istanbul. Throughout the spring and summer, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky repeatedly declared that “bringing home” Ukrainian captives was “a top priority” for his government. Kyiv’s backers share this concern. The European Union and the Council of Europe have strongly emphasized the need for Moscow to release Ukrainian detainees. So has the United States, which, in a joint statement with Ukraine published in March, demanded that the Kremlin prioritize “the exchange of prisoners of war, the release of civilian detainees, and the return of deported Ukrainian children.” Qatar, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have all been involved in mediating prisoner swaps and in efforts to secure the repatriation of Ukrainian children.
